Disability Voting News: March 19, 2025
Cross-posted to my newsletter.
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Accessible Voting Booth! We have a lot to cover for this week. Before we get started, a bit of personal/professional news: on Monday, I launched Landmark Virtual Assistance, a new LLC dedicated to providing communications, social media, and administrative support to businesses and organizations!
My work with democracy and disability rights continues through Disability Victory, my consulting work, and this newsletter. However, like many in nonprofit and democracy spaces, I’ve experienced significant challenges to finding paid work in 2025, so I’m finding ways to adapt. I’m excited to explore this new path with Landmark while continuing to dedicate time to democracy and disability work.
If you or anyone you know needs virtual support, please reach out through the Landmark website! If you need support on democracy and disability rights, I’m still available to take on work through my personal website at sarahblahovec.com. With that out of the way, let’s dive into election news!
“Wisconsin appeals court overturns ruling allowing for emailing ballots to disabled voters” (via AP).
Last Wednesday, the 2nd District Court of Appeals overturned the Dane County Circuit Court judge’s ruling and temporary injunction from June 2024 allowing for emailing of ballots, an accommodation for voters with disabilities. This is a particularly important accommodation for print-disabled voters, voters who have a disability that impacts their ability to read printed materials, including:
People who are blind or who have low vision. Many people with vision disabilities cannot independently read and mark a paper absentee ballot, and an emailed ballot would allow them to use a screen reader to read the ballot and their computer to mark the ballot.
People with physical disabilities who cannot handle and mark a printed ballot independently. An email ballot would allow them to use their own assistive technology to mark the ballot.
Without emailed ballots, these voters must either go to a polling place to use an accessible voting machine to vote independently, or have someone read and/or mark their ballot for them. Voters with disabilities, represented by Disability Rights Wisconsin (DRW) and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin (LWV) were asking to receive their ballots electronically, which they would then be able to mark on their computers, print, and return. Currently, there is a system in place for military and overseas voters to receive their absentee ballots electronically. Wisconsin is not alone in this: there are many states that allow overseas and military voters to receive an electronic ballot as required under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), but in many of those states, this option is not extended to voters with disabilities. According to my research of state voting laws, 35 states and the District of Columbia allowed some or all voters with disabilities to request electronic delivery of an absentee or mail ballot in the 2024 General Election. Far fewer allow electronic return of ballots.
Remote accessible voting has been a contentious topic, as there are significant disagreements between disability rights advocates and election security advocates. Disability rights advocates argue that electronic ballot delivery and return are essential for voters with disabilities to cast their absentee or mail ballot privately and independently, while election security advocates argue that electronic ballots introduce election security risks due to being transmitted over the internet.
Back to Wisconsin: “Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin remain optimistic that permanent relief is still on the horizon because the merits of this case are still being litigated.” They note that the ruling focused on the standard for temporary injunctions, not permanent relief. What this means is that voters with disabilities will not be able to request to receive an absentee ballot by email for the upcoming election on April 1, which includes a contentious state Supreme Court race that will determine which party has majority control of the court. Voters will also vote on a ballot referendum that could codify the state’s voter ID law in the Wisconsin constitution, as well as local and state offices.
Maryland House passes bill to establish a curbside voting pilot program (via The Markup).
On March 13, the Maryland House passed a bill to establish a pilot program to “test the viability of curbside voting.” If passed, this legislation would establish a pilot program in three counties of different sizes to allow for curbside voting as an accommodation for voters with disabilities and elderly voters. Election officials would be required to implement curbside voting in a way that protects voters’ privacy and independence, and the primary method for curbside voting would be by hand-marking paper ballots. However, the bill also requires that if a voter needs to use a ballot-marking device, one must be brought out to the voter. This legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration.
Curbside voting is an important accommodation for voters with disabilities, especially since studies have shown that the majority of polling places are not fully accessible. During the 2016 election, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a survey of 178 polling places nationwide that 60% of polling places had one or more impediments outside of the polling place, such as steep ramps, a lack of signage, or poor parking or path surfaces. Of the polling places that the GAO fully examined (inside and outside), only 17% were fully accessible. Local studies have found similar results: in a survey of 261 polling places in Metro Detroit during the 2022 election, Detroit Disability Power (DDP) found that only 16% of polling places were fully accessible. (Disclosure: I supported DDP’s 2022 audits and continue to support DDP’s work through my role as U.S. Voting Rights Expert at The Carter Center). In this context, curbside voting is a vital accommodation because some voters with disabilities may not be able to get into the polling place due to access barriers.
However, curbside voting must not be used as a way to escape addressing the rampant inaccessibility of polling places. This is a both/and situation: we need to both improve polling place accessibility and offer curbside voting as an accommodation for voters who can’t get in the polling place, voters with limited mobility and energy-limiting disabilities, and elderly voters. I’m happy to see this legislation move forward in Maryland and will continue to track it, and so is Oliver. Even though he’s terrified of car rides, he supports people’s right to vote from their car.
Oliver, on another dreaded car ride to his favorite place in the world (the dog park).
Maryland House Committee approves legislation that would address polling place accessibility (via Voting Rights Lab).
Maryland H 781, The Accessible and Expedited Voting Act, would require the state Board of Elections to establish guidelines for accommodating elderly voters and voters with disabilities at polling places and early voting centers. The guidelines include expedited lines, clearly marked signage, and priority seating to accommodate voters with disabilities. The legislation would also require election officials to collect feedback on these accommodations and require poll worker training to address best practices for assisting voters with disabilities.
This legislation would bolster existing federal requirements for voting accessibility. While these existing laws require polling places to be accessible, the “how” of that accessibility is often vague. The Department of Justice has a checklist for polling place accessibility, but compliance with the ADA is poor. This legislation would solidify clear guidance and requirements for election officials on how to accommodate voters with disabilities, and I’m particularly heartened by the requirement for better poll worker training. In 2023, I worked with the Center for Civic Design and the National Institute for Standards and Technology to research poll worker training on assisting voters with disabilities and found that inconsistencies in poll worker training have caused access barriers for voters with disabilities, particularly when it comes to assisting voters with the accessible voting machine. In a survey of 900 voters with disabilities from the National Council on Disability in 2012, a quarter of voters with disabilities reported untrained poll personnel as a barrier, and 20 percent of respondents said they were unable to exercise their right to vote. We created a customizable poll worker training deck on supporting voters with disabilities who opt to use accessible voting machines.
There’s a lot of good voting news coming out of Maryland, including the Senate passing a State Voting Rights Act which will now move to the House. Head over to the Voting Rights Lab’s Bill Tracker for more information on what’s moving through Maryland’s legislature on voting.
“Texas Senate Republicans unanimously back documentary proof of citizenship bill” (via The Markup).
Now for some bad news. Texas S 16 would create a documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC) requirement when registering to vote, and establishes a list of accepted documents, such as a U.S. passport, birth certificate, citizenship papers, identification issued by the agency of the U.S. responsible for citizenship and immigration, or a certificate of report of birth or consular report of birth abroad issued by the State Department.
This legislation is modeled on Arizona’s current bifurcated voting system, where voters who don’t provide DPOC are only allowed to vote in federal races while voters who provide DPOC are allowed to vote a full ballot. However, from what I can tell, federal-only voters in Arizona are allowed to vote for President, House, and U.S. Senate races, while this bill would only allow federal-only voters to vote for House and Senate, not President. Additionally, whereas Arizona’s requirement only applies to new registrations, this requirement would also apply to voters who are currently registered. According to the Secretary of State of Texas, there are 18.6 million registered Texas voters. All of them would have to provide DPOC to vote a full ballot.
This legislation also establishes practices through which a registrar would have to verify citizenship of new and already-registered voters, which would be a massive workload for already overworked election officials. Furthermore, it establishes felony offenses for registrars who fail to reject voter registration applications they are “required to reject” and felony offenses for a registrar who causes a noncitizen to be registered.
Again, I want to emphasize: noncitizen voting is not a threat. It’s nearly nonexistent and we already have criminal penalties including jail time and potential deportation for noncitizen voting. We don’t have millions, thousands, or even hundreds of people who would risk their residency to vote in American elections as a noncitizen. I’m also concerned about the fact that this is based on Arizona’s legislation. I’ve spoken to some people who believe that it’s too burdensome for other states to model Arizona’s system of having federal-only and full-ballot voters, but Texas Republicans clearly support replicating this system. This news deserves a side eye from my dearly departed Cassie, who never went a day in her life without growling at me:
Cassie was truly the queen of side eye. I loved her so much. She couldn’t stand me.
So is there any good news out of Texas? Well, yes. Texas H 2082, introduced in January, has been moved to the House Committee on Elections. This is basically a dream piece of legislation for expanding voter access. This is what our elections should look like. H 2082 is an expansive voter access bill that includes establishing no-excuse early voting and a ballot curing notification process, as well as a remote accessible voting system for absentee voters with disabilities. Like I said above about Wisconsin, remote accessible voting makes absentee/mail voting accessible to voters with disabilities who cannot independently read and mark a paper ballot.
H 2082 would also establish automatic voter registration, allow voters to use a Native American tribal document or college ID as photo ID, allow election officials to increase the availability of early voting, permit nonpartisan election observation organizations to appoint poll watchers, and restore the right to vote for individuals convicted of a felony who are on probation and parole. This legislation faces an uphill battle in Texas, which has a Republican trifecta in the state government. But I dream, hope, and work for a future where legislation like this can pass in Texas and in other states.
As always, there is far more going on than I can cover in this newsletter. I encourage you to sign up for Voting Rights Lab’s The Markup for weekly snapshots of what’s happening with state voting legislation in 2025.
NDRN Requests Proposals to Provide Technical Assistance on Voting Accessibility
Here’s an exciting opportunity from the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) for organizations or companies led by people with lived experience of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). “The Training and Advocacy Support Center (TASC) of the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) requests proposals from qualified entities to provide training, technical assistance, and related services to Protection and Advocacy (P&A) agencies regarding Access to the Vote for Persons with Disabilities. TASC is making funds available for a fixed price contract to provide training and technical assistance services to NDRN and the P&A agencies. The dollar amount available for the contract is $1000,000 for a six-month period from March 31, 2025 through September 30, 2025.” The application deadline is Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Head over to the NDRN website to see the full RFP.
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